CALLER: You know, I also wanted to point out to you that on our local news they reported this morning in New Hampshire that there's been a change in the standings and Rick Santorum actually came in fourth, ahead of Gingrich.

RUSH: In New Hampshire?

CALLER: In New Hampshire.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: But the point of my call was to say that I had been a Newt voter. Really my vote was Newt to lose. I really wanted to vote for Newt. You became disappointed in him as he started to do these attacks on Romney just because I thought he was coming from the wrong side. I felt like he was attacking him for what was conservative about him instead of attacking him for what's liberal about him -- and I actually went to a poll place where I knew that Newt was gonna be, waited for an hour, and never found him. But I wanted to shake his hand and say, "I haven't cast my vote yet but you're losing me." So when I heard this person in South Carolina had said those same things, you know, I was kind of taking heart. I keep hoping that at any second he's gonna say, "You know what? Let's drop it, let's refocus, let's get back to talking about Obama."RUSH: So, just to understand, Newt has lost your vote but he could get it back?

CALLER: Well, at that time, it was Tuesday, and I had not voted in the primary yet. I felt like if I saw him and could say, "You know what you can do to make me vote for you? You take a different direction." You know, there's so many things about him that I do like. You know everybody likes him in a debate. I was looking down the line to popping popcorn and watching him take on Obama. But I guess I did not really like the direction he was taking in between debates.

RUSH: All right. So we finally found something, at least with you, that matters more than debate performance.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah, well, I just really felt like he started to... You know, he's examining his criticism a little bit if he's gonna start to go after Mitt, he's really coming after Mitt from the left. I mean, you could go after Mitt on his gun control things that he passed in Massachusetts or on his shifting positions.

RUSH: Well, see, that is interesting, Sandra. That would be an interesting line of attack. A better question for Perry and Newt to ask would be something like what you just said: "How did Romney's experience at Bain Capital make him a better governor of Massachusetts?" Now, that would be a legitimate question, because Romney is running around talking about his experience at Bain qualifies him, because of job creation, number of other things. "Okay. Then tell us, how did your experience at Bain make you a better governor, and how will it make you a better president?" If you could do that, that would not constitute an attack on capitalism. I mean, whoever thought...? Folks, really, whoever thought that you would hear a conservative campaigning by saying, "The other guy is more capitalistic than I am" as a means of criticizing? Whoever thought you'd ever hear this?

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RUSH: Benjamin in Las Vegas, great to have you, and I really am glad you waited, too. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, no, thank you for letting me on. It's an honor to be a part of the birthday show.

RUSH: You're more than welcome, sir, and I didn't let you on, you earned it.

CALLER: (laughing) Well, thank you. Thank you.

RUSH: And you better keep earning it.

CALLER: Yeah. Going back to the top of the show, you were talking about the stats that they're basically clearly manipulating. And while trying to read the top secret and highly predictable liberal playbook, I think it's clear that Obama's gonna use these statistics as proof that his job's bill's working. I think the neat thing to do, or the trick that maybe the Republicans should do, is actually turn around and say, "No, these numbers didn't turn around 'til after the Tea Party took to power." I just think it would be a great little scheme to play their game against them.

RUSH: Well, yeah. See, I know things you don't know. (laughing)

CALLER: Probably quite true. (laughing)

RUSH: But since we're talking about politics and we can lie, yeah, go for it. Yeah, let's credit the Tea Party with the drop in unemployment numbers. Obama had nothing to do with it, and arguably that's -- in fact, did you hear what Santorum said? I kind of like this. Santorum said the unemployment situation is getting better 'cause people are already eagerly anticipating Obama losing in November. There's already an uptick in positive thinking and attitude out there because of the prospect Obama might lose.

CALLER: Yeah, no, I agree with it. Any time we talk about unemployment numbers, I like to say that they are getting better just on the premise that the Tea Party --

RUSH: Well, they didn't start going down until after January 2009. I mean you're right, especially after the midterms of 2010, that's when the precipitous drop started taking place.

CALLER: Yeah. I mean I do the same trick with the Clinton surplus when people talk about that. I like to say, "Look, it was after Republicans took the majority back then, too."

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: So I mean it's a little game I like to play 'cause people always assume that --

RUSH: We like playing games here, too, but I also like being honest, and I have to tell you, I shouldn't tell you this, I'm gonna get blowback on it, but I'm gonna tell you. No, I'm not gonna tell you. Yeah, I gotta tell you now. I can't back out of it. I don't like telling you this. The Tea Party in the House, they've tried to lessen the influence of the Tea Party freshmen in the House. The Republican leadership has. I mean, the Democrats do the same thing to their arriving freshmen, the so-called conservative Democrats or the moderate Democrats. Pelosi tried to get 'em defeated even if it meant thinning the herd. It's the same thing. The Tea Party arrived all loaded for bear. They were elected, they were sent there to fix this spending mess, and they found the leadership wasn't as interested in that as they were. And then they were told that if you want to go anywhere here as a member of the House then you gotta drop that. And some of them did and some of them didn't. It's enormous, enormous pressure. But regardless, we'll take your suggested strategery and run with it. Benjamin, thanks much for the phone call. Appreciate it.

John in Wilson, New York. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Navy Seabee dittos.

RUSH: Thank you. John, I have to tell you something here.

CALLER: All right.

RUSH: You are the only call on the board that Mr. Snerdley has not told me what you want to talk about so I have no clue. In the comments subject column of your call, it was blank.

CALLER: Okay, this is gonna be different, Rush. Newt is exactly what we need. We need a guy who will get down in the trenches and beat the Democrats, because I am tired of these guys, like Romney and everyone else, that is namby-pamby. What Newt's doing right now is what he has to to win, and that's what we need this year.

RUSH: There's a better way of doing this. There's an indictment of capitalism going on here. I know Newt's trying to walk that back and just refocus it on Romney and himself. But Bain Capital, we had the sound bite from Robert Kraft. Let me ask you this. You know, you know, I live in Literalville, I live in Realville and I can't get out of it, and I need to ask you a question. Where do you think Bain Capital gets its money? Are these six or 21 rich guys? Where does Bain Capital get its money to go out and buy these companies?

CALLER: I know where it comes from. It comes from my 401(k). I got it, Rush.

RUSH: That's exactly right. It comes from pension plans. It comes from union retirement plans. That's what's so maddening about this, is that these guys at Bain are trying to improve the return on people investing with Bain, and that could be your retirement.

CALLER: I got it, Rush, it's part of the process. I know it's not nice, it's nasty. We need a brawler next November or we're gonna lose this thing, I can see it happening now. About a hundred feet from the end of the Republican primary Romney's gonna turn on his left-turn signal.

RUSH: Look, a lot of people think that. I can't tell you how often I have people tell me that they think Romney is the next Nixon, meaning he's gonna do whatever he has to do to make the left like him, and Nixon, of course, really expanded the bureaucracy. OSHA, EPA, Nixon gave us a lot of these new cabinet departments, 'cause the left hated him. A lot of people tell me they don't think Romney is a real conservative, that he's just saying this.

CALLER: Rush, I gave a guy that was pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-gay marriage, raise taxes, I don't know how you turn that around and call yourself conservative. I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot swallow that.

RUSH: And I think this is why people perceive there to be a lack of passion. But, at the same time, let me just ask you this, John. Will you agree with me -- and this is not a rhetorical device -- I'm asking, would you agree with me that Romney's not a popular guy on the Republican side?

CALLER: Oh, absolutely.

RUSH: Well, why is that? Aren't they mad at Romney because they think he fights dirty? You go back to 2008, the anger at Romney then was identical to Newt's anger at him in 2012. Romney was running ads 'cause he had money that nobody else had at the time, against McCain, against Huckabee. They were livid. They were livid. Giuliani was livid. Just like Newt and Perry are now. What that means is, okay, Romney's dirty, Romney fights dirty, Romney runs ads -- or his PACs do -- that are chock-full of lies. Yet you called and said that he'll take a left turn into wimpville when it's time to run against Obama.

CALLER: Well, I think that's two different things. He's definitely gonna go left. Some of the hard left positions of Obama he will curb. I wouldn't look for my radical changes out of him. I just don't think so.

RUSH: Why does he want to be president, then? Do you not believe him when he says he will repeal Obamacare? Do you not believe him when he says we're gonna reverse the direction this country, make it strong economically and great? Do you not believe him?

CALLER: Well, as far as Obamacare goes, you know his position in Massachusetts, and I think he'll make an attempt at curbing Obamacare. I don't think it will be a full effort, though. I think it'll be just a halfhearted thing.

RUSH: Why? I'm not arguing. I want to know, why?

CALLER: I think Romney's -- I've seen these guys. They take the safe road. And the safe road is maybe do a token knockdown of it, just to say you did it, and that's gonna be the end of it.

RUSH: But avoid controversy.

CALLER: I'm sorry, what's that?

RUSH: Avoid controversy, don't want to go anywhere near it.

CALLER: Correct. Correct.

RUSH: Well, you are echoing, you are echoing things I hear from a lot of people. So, you are by no means in a boat by yourself. Now, we're gonna hold the House. The odds are good that we're gonna increase our position in the Senate. Now, the question is being asked of me, "Doesn't that help keep Romney...? No, it's just the opposite. I hate to tell you, but when you have a Republican president and a Republican Congress, the Republican Congress doesn't buck the Republican president because then you would have story after story of party disloyalty. That is why I've maintained for many, many moons now (a little Indian lingo there) that the House Republicans got so beat up by their voters because they went along with all that spending, but they were simply passing into law the budget their president gave 'em.

It wasn't really until the summer of 2007 that the House Republicans finally broke away from the administration on illegal immigration. The House Republicans finally stood up and says, "There's no way. We're not going for this amnesty." You know, they bit the bullet on Campaign Finance Reform, Medicare Part B, a lot of things. I talked to House Republicans back then and they said, "We've got no choice! The president wants to spend this money, and if we don't go along with it, party loyalty comes into play. We're accused of not following the president, then we've got a mutiny here." So a Republican Senate and House will follow what a respected president wants 80% of the time. Look at Obama and the Democrats. I mean, it took a whole bunch of chicanery, trickery, tomfoolery, and trickinology, but they got their health care done. Now, Obama is running around against a Congress that won't follow him, that "won't do anything," and it's majority Democrat for most of his term, but on balance you're going to find the Republican Congress going along with the Republican president. At least that's the truth in recent histoire.

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RUSH: Houston, Texas. This is Patty. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello. Mega dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: This is the second time I've called. I'm very happy about that, and I wanted to thank you for being on there. I've been listening to you since '92.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: And the reason why I called was just to, I guess, critique your critique of Newt -- and his, as you state, his attack on capitalism. I would argue that he's been very specific of having a specific critique of Romney, citing three examples -- examples cited in the New York Times -- where wasn't just a question of whether capitalism as a whole works but rather, "Hey, here are specific instances where you had these private equity funds," and I understand that Bain is a venture fund, but I believe it began as a private equity fund in which they have access that the normal Joe Blow does not have in terms of starting businesses. I'm an Ivy League grad, I know this for a fact. I coulda worked, you know, easily as a management consultant.

RUSH: Well, let me tell you something: I'm sorry. I thought I had more time when you took your call. In fact, get her number so we can call her back because I hate her getting short-changed like this. When you said you're Ivy League, that explains it. You know everything!